Librarian's grim pilgrimage to murder trial in Oakland
March 05, 2002
By Glenn Chapman STAFF WRITER
The slight, soft-spoken librarian has watched respectfully from a wooden seat each day of the proceedings against accused killer Willie Green since opening arguments Feb. 4.
Defense attorney Dan Horowitz cracked Hass' composure Monday as he depicted the witnesses as untrustworthy, the prosecutor as a conniving racist, and the family as hungry for a "human sacrifice."
"I was shocked," Hass said outside Alameda County Superior Judge Philip Sarkisian's courtroom. "I came to represent my son. ... Mr. Green's fate is up to the jury and society."
Hass has taken time off from her job as manager of library services at St. Vincent's Hospital in Indiana to attend Green's trial, which could end with Green sentenced to death if convicted.
Green confronted 27-year-old Charles Hass after he and his boyfriend, Aaron Merritt, stepped out of Bay Area Liquors at the corner of Peralta and 12th streets at 10:30 p.m. Jan. 27, 2001, according to Merritt.
Green claimed to be a police officer and pulled Hass into the shadows next to the store, said Deputy District Attorney Michael Nieto. An unknown man referred to in court as "scarface" then held Charles Hass while Green tried to rob him, according to the prosecution's case.
Merritt, now 29, told jurors he was stabbed in the lung by Green when he went to Hass' rescue. Merritt said he whacked Green in the head with a bottle and freed Hass, who ran with Merritt to his apartment. Hass was stabbed by Green during the robbery bid and fell dying to the floor of Merritt's apartment, Nieto told jurors.
"The evidence in this case cries out for verdicts of guilty as charged of first-degree murder and attempted murder," Nieto said. "Aaron Merritt was not afraid to point his finger at the man who killed Charles Hass, and who almost killed him."
Horowitz countered that the stress of that night left Merritt's recollections unreliable.
"There is no doubt in my mind Willie Green did it," Merritt said outside Sarkisian's courtroom Monday. "The defense can hope everyone on the jury ignores the truth."
Others whose testimony incriminated 45-year-old Green can't be trusted because of criminal associations and convictions, Horowitz said. Many witnesses were brought from jail or prison to take the stand. Green's past includes robbery and shooting a woman dead, according to court records.
"When you have evil events, with drug sellers and others of that ilk hanging out at Peralta and 12th at 10:30 at night, you don't expect to have angels as witnesses," Nieto told jurors. "Because witnesses come here in a jumpsuit and have a sheriff sitting next to them does not mean you throw everything they say in the trash."
Horowitz suggested Nieto filtered blacks from the jury and coaxed witnesses into falsely implicating Green, who is African American. Merritt is white, as was Hass. Green is a victim of mistaken identity, according to Horowitz and his co-counsel, James Giller.
"You cannot convict to please the Hass family; we don't have human sacrifice in America," Horowitz said.
Horowitz's attacks on the prosecution, and police, disturbed Merritt and Louise Hass, who both spoke of being impressed with the professionalism and dedication of Nieto and Oakland police detectives.